Thursday, November 22 is Thanksgiving, a day to be thankful for the good things in your life. People give thanks for many things — family, friends, success, opportunities, nature, pets, help from others and much more. As a class, talk about the things you are thankful for this Thanksgiving. Are they physical things, emotional things or something else? Then pair off and scan the newspaper or Internet to find and read about people who have good things to be thankful for. Use what you find to design a poster or newspaper ad showing five people who have something to be thankful for. Use images from the newspaper or Internet to illustrate your poster. Write a paragraph for each person explaining what he/she has to be thankful for.

Common Core State Standards: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions; using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points; writing informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

2. Get Your Exercise

Everyone knows it’s healthy to get regular exercise. But you may not need to take a gym class or do a full workout to benefit. Exercising just a few minutes at a time can improve health and fitness if you do enough of it every week, according to new government guidelines. In the past, health experts recommended doing at least 10 minutes of exercise every time to improve fitness. Now, the guidelines say any exercise is good exercise, no matter how long you do it. “Sit less, move more. Whatever you do, it really all counts,” said Brett P. Giroir of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. New fitness guidelines say people should aim for 150 to 300 minutes of moderate exercise a week or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous exercise. Many activities that provide exercise are fun as well! In the newspaper or online, find and read about five fun activities that could give you a chance to exercise. Pick one and write a personal letter to a friend, inviting him or her to try the activity with you. Be sure to state why the activity would be fun.

Common Core State Standards: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task; citing specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions.

3. Sea Monsters

For most people, sea monsters are things that turn up in scary stories or bad dreams. But 100 million years ago in the southern Atlantic Ocean, sea monsters were very real — and very dangerous. Swimming reptiles called mosasaurs were fierce predators in the waters off the Atlantic coast of Africa. Fossils of many of them have been found in the African nation of Angola, and this month they are going on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Mosasaurs were likely the top ocean predator in their world, and the fossils reveal that they could grow up to 50 feet long and weigh 15 tons. They also could swim swiftly with a huge tail and flippers, and they had three-inch-long teeth to help them kill and eat their prey. Fossil discoveries give scientists information about how wildlife lived millions of years ago. In the newspaper or online, find and closely read a story about a fossil discovery. Use what you read to write a short report explaining why the discovery is important to scientists. Use images from the newspaper or Internet to illustrate your report.

Common Core State Standards: Reading closely what a text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; citing specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions.

4. Musical Treasure

As a music teacher in the state of Pennsylvania, Jane Kesson touched thousands of students over a long career. She led the school chorus, loved opera and often took students on field trips to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra in the city of Philadelphia. When she died last year at the age of 90, no one was surprised that she left money to the orchestra she loved. But how much money has “flabbergasted” orchestra leaders and the community. This month the orchestra revealed that Miss Kesson’s gift was a whopping $4.7-million! She had built up that fortune by watching how much she spent and investing wisely over a long life. The money will be used to support a wide range of orchestra activities, including teacher workshops and a concert series for elementary students. People often do generous things to support organizations and arts groups they like. In the newspaper or online, find and closely read a story about someone being generous in this way. Use what you read to write a letter to the editor telling how this person’s generosity benefits the organization — and the community.

Common Core State Standards: Reading closely what a text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; citing specific
textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions.

5. Holy Cats

In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped as special animals, and there even was a Cat Goddess known as Bastet. Egyptians believed cats had powers to bring good luck to people, and they were treated like royalty. Just how special cats were to ancient Egyptians has been revealed in a new set of discoveries in tombs dating back 6,000 years. Archaeologists exploring the tombs announced they had found dozens of specially mummified cats, 100 wooden cat statues and even a bronze bust of Bastet, the goddess of cats. Animals are often very important to people. In the newspaper or online, find and closely read a story about an animal that is important to a person, a family or another group. Draw a picture showing how the animal is important to the people involved. Share your picture with the class and explain how it shows the animal’s importance.

Common Core State Standards: Using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points; reading closely what a text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; citing specific
textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions.